MATERIALS | MATERIALS HANDLING
Right: Conair is implementing a new common control platform, featuring an HMI that offers a consistent user experience regardless of the machinery involved – the SmartFLX conveying control screen is shown
continues to be a tremendous need for error proofing. In the past year, Conair has delivered two new proofing solutions: a truck-fill proofing system, and an RFID proofing system.” He continues: “The driver for
better controls, more automation, more proofing and the rest, is the fact that it is so difficult for so many processors – both before and after Covid – to attract, train, and keep experienced plant personnel. Facilities tend to be more lightly staffed, so owners and managers are trying to adopt systems that mini- mise the need for training and ultimately reduce the possibility for an error to occur with proofing. For example, it is important for operators to be properly trained in how to introduce a new material into a processing system. But with so many new or inexperienced operators, there is a greater likelihood of errors due to limited training. So, proofing systems are one way that greater automa- tion, provided by more sophisticated material handling controls, can help to reduce the training burden and help prevent operators from making serious and costly processing mistakes.” He says another antidote to personnel and
training issues is the development of a common control across many equipment types. “At Conair, we now offer a common control platform and user interface across many of our product lines: TCUs, dryers, blenders, and our Smart FLX conveying systems. Ultimately, that means that operators who have been trained on one Conair product – a dryer or TCU – will find that there is a similar menu
structure and approach for blenders and convey- ing systems as well.” Paradiso adds that there continues to be a
greater need for conveying systems that can actively minimise the resin loss or “attrition” – angel hair, streamers, broken pellets, fines and dust – that is caused by high-speed dilute phase conveying. As a result, Conair has introduced Wave Convey- ing, a slower-speed, dense-phase resin-conveying technology that uses deep vacuum and advanced controls to move large material throughputs at low and controlled speeds – from 300 to 2,800 feet per minute (91.4 - 853.4 m/min) in dense phase – so resin attrition and system erosion are virtually eliminated.
With the addition of AutoWave, a bolt-on option for the SmartFLX conveying control, Conair says that it now enables processors to automate, rather than manually program, the conveying parameters required to move resin from source to destination at controlled speeds in any of three phases: dense- phase “pulse”, dense-phase “stream” and conven- tional “dilute” phase. In addition, the AutoWave feature continually monitors and adjusts every conveying cycle in real-time to ensure in-phase performance and optimise them for future use. The combination of Conair’s SmartFLX control
Now, with Conair’s AutoWave feature, users need only select the desired conveying phase from a drop-down menu and AutoWave does the rest
44 INJECTION WORLD | September 2021
and the AutoWave feature results in a conveying control that eliminates the need for manual air-material adjustments to maintain conveying performance after material changes. The knowl- edge required to make those air-material adjust- ments requires training and experience, so the ability of the AutoWave feature to automate the process enables Wave Conveying systems to run more reliably for longer periods of time. Brabender Technologie has introduced a
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IMAGE: CONAIR
IMAGE: CONAIR
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